Spring nail⎪Color-blocking in Pastel

Another thursday late afternoon. I need a little break from work... What's a girl to do with 20 minutes on her hands? Girly stuff, of course!

Left hand - to each nail its own color

Right hand - a bit more fantasy
With the same basis of colors, but sassier than the other hand

MY TOP FIVE: AYURVEDIC FOOD TO KEEP IN YOUR PANTRY

Ayurveda is an ancient and wholistic system from Indian that sees food as the first medicine to the body and the mind. It can highly help improve health and beauty (internal and external) by providing guidance regarding food and lifestyle choices. The recommandations are specific and they depend on a person’s constitution, which is also called Dosha. Basically, food is the fuel for health in Ayurveda. It establishes optimum digestion. On the contrary, poor nutrition can cause various diseases. Suffice to say that nutrition has to be based on fresh ingredients, a combination of vegetables and fruits, whole grains and spices that will boost energy and provide healing and skin replenishing on a daily basis.

Some ingredients are key to an ayurvedic lifestyle. Those come over and over again and, often than not, can be used for both cooking and beauty regime.

Here are my top five ingredients, indispensable for an ayurvedic pantry.

Ginger

Ginger has to be the star of ayurveda. It’s good for everything and on everything. It is rare that I start a day without a cup of warm ginger-lemon-honey infusion. Based on ancient ayurvedic archives, ginger helps boost digestion ; it also helps with blood circulation. It is quite spicy but incredible in taste once you learn how to incorporate it in your diet. 
Indians, West Indians and Africans use ginger in almost recipe. We put ginger in marinades for barbecues, sauces, stews, salads vinaigrettes…. It is especially good for vata and pitta constitutions because they do need more warmth than kaphas. Though kaphas will also need it to aid digestion. It really is a « universal ingredient » for medecine and beauty. 
Ah, and before I forget, I also use grated ginger sometimes when I do dry rubbing before showering – I mix with with sea salt to create a nice natural scrub. One last use for ginger is, if you need boost with digestion is to take a teaspoon of grated ginger with lemon and salt. I do it sometimes. Though, if, like me, you are a bit sensitive to pungent tastes, this mixture might be a bit spicy for you. But once you get used to the heat, it will make wonders to a particularly weaknened stomach.

Ghee

Ghee is also known as clarified butter. It is widely used in Indian cooking and gives wonderful taste to every meal. The advantages of ghee are numerous. Butter or regular oils can be heavy on the stomach and the hips, and lactose can be especially detrimental for those suffering from respiratory and/or skin allergies (which is my case). With ghee, you keep the creamy butter-like flavor, without all the bad stuff. Ayurveda recommends at least one teaspoon of ghee every day. 

Another use for ghee is that of a massage oil. At room temperature, the liquid hardens and becomes opaque in color. For daily ayurvedic abhyanga massages, simply add a few drops of your favorite essential oils and proceed to rub onto the skin.

Please find my video on how to make ghee from the comfort of your own home. You can’t be more organic than that. Plus, it’s super easy to do:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxYQ6DS0WgY&feature=g-upl

Coconut oil

Is it even necessary to introduce this wonderful ingredient, used, once again, for beauty care and for food. The advantage of coconul oil in cooking is that it tolerates high heat, which gives it tremendous versatility. It is also a great anti-oxydant, which helps resist premature aging and degenerative diseases.

In an ayurvedic lifestyle, prefer a consistant yet moderate ingestion of coconut oil, so long as it is extra virgin, cold pressed and unrefined. Personally, my favorite use of coconut oil is for skin and hair care. Indian and Polynesian beauties (Vahinés, as they are called) use it for hair moisture and growth, but also for full body massages. 
I typically use coconut every day to massage my scalp, right before starting my abhy massage (ayurvedic massage). I also use it once a week, again on my hair, to saturate my entire head (scalp and hair length). If I can, I keep it through the night and proceed to my weekly shampoo or co-wash. Speaking for someone who suffered great damage on my hair from pregnancies and heat damage, I have seen tremendous improvement in my hair and incredible growth.

LEMONS

Lemons are body cleansers by excellence.They contain high levels of vitamin C and potassium ; their rind and pulp contain calcium, magnesium and phosphorus. They are good for stimulating gastric juices thus, helping the digestion. Personally, I am a bit stomach sensitive, so I prefer drinking lemon juice in the morning to help me burst with energy but almost never at night ; otherwise it causes fermentation in my stomach, with the gastric gaz’s acidity leaving me with stomach ache, throat irritation, watery eyes and sinus problems. 

When I wake up in the morning, though, I have a cup of warm water, in which I infuse fresh grated ginger, a dash of lemon juice and a squeeze of honey. The lemon and ginger boost immediately my digestive system, while the honey soothes my stomach, in addition to its sweet taste. I also use lemon in my facial masks ; it helps with dark spots caused by past acne scaring. Lemon is a good natural whitener. 

Back to cleansing, lemon is a good detox ingredient. You can have a glass of warm or lukewarm lemon water half an hour before eating. I personnally carry a full bottle of lemon infused-mineral water everywhere I go so I can drink it throughout the day.

Whole grains

Whole grains contain the entire grain kernel. They also retain the bran and germ. The refinement process gives food a finer texture, which helps prolong their shelf life, yet removes important nutrients such as B vitamins, fiber, iron, vitamin E, B, and folic acid. Whole grains are also rich in fiber, which can help you lose weight by making you feel fuller throughout the day and prevent overeating. 

In Ayurveda, the most important meal is lunch, which should be eaten between noon to 2pm. The reason for this is that a good lunch provides the necessary energy to go on with the day’s activities, while providing enough time awake and active to enable proper digestion. 

Overtime, I’ve had to alter my nutritional habits a bit to better suit my lifestyle, and, as much as possible, I try to favor whole grain ingestion during the day, rather than in the evening, before going to bed. Exception being when I plan a night out, which will require stocked energy to stay up and dancing all night long !

Painting: La Saint-Louisienne

Nice painting, representative of the 19 th century woman of St Louis, as depicted by artist Bounama Yade

Extract from St Louis Jazz Festival

Music was nice... I thought I'd record a piece of an interesting piece - a mix of a German pianist and an artist of obscure ethnic background (Originally from Burkina Faso, grew up in Côte d'Ivoire and naturalized Senegalese - I think) and who played an instrument equally obscure in nature.


The sound was great though, and that's what matters in a music festival!

Jazz festival - random beauty

Welcome to the city of Saint Louis, home of the annual jazz festival

All and about the main stage, a market was set up where people sold natural clay, yellow gold jewelry, etc.

Never wondered how to recycle all your beers? Here's an original way to turn your old beers into pieces of art.

A chair

Can't figure out what this is? Actually, it's a toilet paper holder! Clever and weird at the same time.

This is the front of a nice art gallery.

The "Maison Rose" - bed&breakfast, spa, hammam, etc. This place is really nice and makes the long days before the evening, when the music starts, seem shorter and more enjoyable.

Random beauty: beautiful colonial door

And let the show being!

Ok, one weird thing about the festival - in my opinion - is the fact that they put chairs for people to sit. It made dancing and spontaneous fun a bit tricky. Different country, different style, I guess.

Purple rain nails

Hello everyone!


I was away for a few days with friends and family. We went to Saint Louis for their annual jazz festival. Overall, I think I'm not such a jazz festival kind of person but hanging out outside, having street food and bad-for-you soda is sometimes good medicine for the mind. So I enjoyed every minute of that.

To gear up for the festival, I came up with these fun nails, super easy to do, with my favorite color: purple - which happens to be the color of my birth gemstone amethyst and the color of prosperity in feng shui. 


I used the French manicure paper forms, but I like a reverse-French style by placing them a little below the white part of the nails, approximately a third of the way, and upside down. Also, I applied two kinds of polish: a couple of coats of transparent purples and another layer of glittery violet and finished with the top coat. Plus, strass stickers.

And, as a little bonus (I had a few extra minutes to kill!) - fantasy pedicure to spice up the toes!

Ayurvedic beauty 101: How to make basic ghee

In a path to natural and serene beauty, one has to be able to make decisions about how to life their life. That encompasses all aspects of beauty: inside and out.


Ayurveda is great, in that it helps to determine what works for each and every person - depending on their own personal characteristics and aspirations. Mind and body are concerned when deciding what type of food will best fit a person. It's not about the stress of not being able to fit in a two-piece bathing suit or plain crazy dieting. No. Ayurveda is about healthy body image. Everyone is made differently and beauty is in each and every one of us. But, as Ayurveda teaches, beauty is about what's been given to us as the lottery DNA gift; it is a lot more about nurturing what we got and improving what needs to be.


The starting point being positive body image. It's a pivotal aspect of any personal journey - deciding to be the best we can be, regardless of the media's imposition of what's beautiful after such and such runway season.


A positive body image also means accepting what we've got. It means embracing our curves, or lack thereof. It's about knowing what ingredients will boost an element that needs to, or which other ingredient will cleanse us, etc.


At first, I wondered whether I should talk about this part of my life and my young path towards spiritual and mental awakening. But I realize how it's all connected: If I'm not at peace with myself, with my qualities and imperfections alike, how can I open myself to know what needs improvement and what's already gorgeous? How can I also be serene enough to seek after the success of my projects and ideas? How can I just feel proud of my achievements once I reach them? It is all interconnected. Period.


The journey to changing from the inside out starts by making the decision; then sticking to it and congratulating myself when I see that I've made progress. It means changing my culinary habits - and thankfully, I'm curious enough in terms of food to be open to try new things (most of the stuff I eat looks weird to most people anyway!).


I'm not such a fried and oily food lover, but one is never too engaged. That's why I started substituting oil with Ghee (aka. clarified butter used in most Indian dishes). I switch between EVOO and ghee, depending on whether I want that "butter" undertone taste to the food I'm making. 


Enjoy.... until next time!

Retro red carpet hair in Cannes Film festival

Marilyn will forever live in our hearts as the quintessence of beauty. The Hollywood legend is also the official image of this year's notorious film festival.

But Marilyn was not just the inspiration behind this year's celebration, her retro blond wavy locks seem to have been the departure point of many hair artists. See by yourself.... many of the who's who of actresses are sporting some version of Marilyn Monroe's fantasy hair style. Others, whose hair was too long to copy the look did some version of the 50s retro hair. 

The Marilyn hair look-alikes

Eva Herzigova 

Ludivine Sagnier

Milla Jovovitch

The modern day PinUps

Virginie Ledoyen

Hofit Golan

Jessica Chastain

Eva Longoria

Vahina Giocante

Marie Gilain

Marion Cotillard

Cannes Festival : modern day deities under one red carpet

Let the festivities begin.... with classical beauty!

Americans have their Oscars; the French have César!


This time of year is full of glamorous events, spread all over the world. The Cannes Festival is by far, in my opinion, the one that shows real fabulosity. 


Hollywood movie stars competing with the French beauties, known for their nonchalant beauty and effortless style, competing with the rest - the Indians known for their exotic features, the Chinese - ravishing with fair and luxurious skin and blackest hair, the sculptural Italian Sophia Lorens of modern days, etc.

Overdone American actresses, with controlled fashion and statement pieces vs. simple, natural-looking flawless skinned makeup philosophy vs. the others. Because, of course, the Croisette is not just for the two categories listed above. Right now, Cannes is full of everyone who wants to be seen, from up&coming supermodels, to wealthy Italian businessmen showing off their latest sports car acquisition, to the Chinese... yes, the Chinese. The Chinese businessmen, the Chinese actresses, and the rest of the rainbow complexion spectrum.... the cake is big enough for everybody!


But let's get back to beauty, shall we? 

For me, Eva is the undeniable goddess of  the Croisette this year!

Wow factor, made in Eva!

Salma Hayek and husband François Henri Pinault

Made in North Africa

Moroccan native, French actress Leila Bekhti

LEILA BEKHTI, HAFSIA HERZI, SABRINA OUAZANI 
and HIAM ABBASS

LEILA BEKHTI and HAFSIA HEFSI

Made in Bollywood

Again, Freida Pinto - did you say Bollywood Dream?

The Freida show

Not a stranger to the Festival, the most beautiful woman in the Universe, Aishwarya Rai strikes again, only a few months after giving birth to first baby girl 

The newcomer: Bollywood actress Kareena Kapoor 

Right now, one can rightly say that Cannes encompasses the crème de la crème in terms of Greek goddesses-look alike(s). And yes, they are all beautiful.... After just about 24 HOURS only after the announcement of the beginning of the celebration of 2011 cinema's finest, here's the beauty bunch that already stepped on the infamous tapis rouge.

Diane Kruger, by day

Like-an-angel Diane Kruger

Ageless beauty Jane Fonda

Supermodel-mom Eva Herzigova

Jada Pinkett, not in competition but lovely for "Madagascar"

Marion Cotillard, lovely in pastel by day

 Dolores Chaplin

 American pop sensation Lana Del Rey

Virginie Ledoyen. Part I

Virginie Ledoyen. Part II

The Artist's Berenice Bejo  

Israeli socialite-model Hofit Golan

Tilda Swinton

Chinese actress Fan Bing Bing

Fan Bing Bing again

Chinese actress Chen Tingjia